Day 3: On the Road Again

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Golf Traveler

Unlike any of the previous trips to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, we have had to deal with weather. Lots of it.

Usually, it’s the occasional afternoon shower that will call us off the course. But this year (so far), weather has been a factor every day.

After leaving Birmingham Saturday morning in a rainstorm on Biblical proportions, we made our way 80 miles to the northeast to Gadsden. That same storm seemed to be making its way down I-20 and headed toward us again.

Silver Lakes is Gadsden is in the foothills of the Appalachians and has a beauty all its own as you look out over the 27 holes from the top of the hill. When a tornado hit Alabama in April, 2011, it destroyed 10,000 trees on the course. Run those numbers again. So the course did a massive makeover and was ready in six months, though with a complete redesign.

In Saturday’s round, it rained, it stopped, it rained, it stopped but we kept playing until we were called off the course on the back nine due to rain and lightning. Which was fine, because it was time for lunch anyway.

When we went back out, the sun was shining and all was good … until the sirens sounded again on the last hole. Tornado warning, and as I said before, they are a little touchy about tornados around here.

But we didn’t drive all this way to play 17 holes, so we played speed golf for the final hole, added up the embarrassing scorecards and took off for our next destination.

Hurrying to the Clubhouse on 18

We didn’t have to go through Guntersville, Ala., to get from Gadsden to Muscle Shoals, but since the driver of our foursome is Peter Gunter, of course we did. Pete always reminds us that his great, great, great, great grandfather (who’s counting?) is whom the town is named for and it is a very scenic town on Lake Guntersville (ask a bass fisherman).

We stopped for a picture and then again at a convenience store, where Pete was anxious to tell the cashier all about his heritage. I was concerned about a more pressing question for the cashier – Auburn or Alabama? “Auburn,” she said.

I asked which was more popular in Guntersville. “Alabama,” she replied with an eye roll.

We finished the Gunter Heritage Tour and arrived two hours later in Muscle Shoals for our next stop.

The morning round on Sunday is the one I’ve looked forward to the most: the links-style Fighting Joe course. Many of the courses on the RTJ Trail can look alike (parkland style), but the Fighting Joe is dramatically different. It finishes with a par 3 18th hole that has an amazing view of the Tennessee River.